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An audio book is a recording of the contents of a
book read aloud.
In 1933, anthropologist J.P. Harrington, drove the length of North
America to record oral histories of Native American tribes on
aluminum discs using a car battery-powered turntable. Audiobooks
preserve the oral tradition of storytelling that J.P. Harrington
pursued many years ago
Formats
Audiobooks are usually distributed on CDs, cassette tapes, or
digital formats (e.g., MP3 and Windows Media Audio).
The term "books on tape" is frequently used as a synonym for
audiobooks, but cassette tapes are no longer the dominant media for
audiobooks. In 2005, Cassette-tape sales made up roughly 16% of the
audio book market, with CDs sales accounting for 74% of the market,
and downloadable audio books accounting for approximately 9%. In the
United States, the most recent sales survey (performed by the Audio
Publishers' Association in the summer of 2006 for the year 2005)
estimated the industry to be worth 871 million US dollars. Current
industry estimates hover at around two billion US dollars per year.
Most new popular titles put out by the major publishers are
available in audio book format simultaneously with publication of
the hardcover edition. There are approximately 25,000 current titles
on cassette, CD, or downloadable format.
Unabridged audiobooks are word for word readings of a book, while
abridged audio books have text edited out by the abridger.
Audiobooks also come as fully dramatized versions of the printed
book, sometimes calling upon a complete cast, music, and sound
effects. Each spring, the Audie Awards are given to the top nominees
for performance and production in several genre categories.
There are quite a few radio programs serializing books, sometimes
read by the author or sometimes by an actor, most of them on the
BBC.
History
In 1931 the Congress established the talking-book program, which was
intended to help blind adults who couldn’t read print. This program
was called “Books for the Adult Blind Project”. The American
Foundation for the Blind developed first talking books in 1932. One
year later the first reproduction machine began the process of mass
publishing. By 1935, after Congress approved free mailings of audio
books to blind citizens, the Books for the Adult Blind Project was
in full operation. In 1992 the National Library Service for the
Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) network circulated millions
of recorded books to more than 700,000 handicapped listeners. All
NLS recordings were created by professionals.
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